IN THE FIRST chapter we find ourselves carried to the 20th year of Artaxerxes, whereas Ezra went to Jerusalem in the 7th year of that king. Nehemiah was not a priest, but he was at Shushan the palace in an official capacity. His story begins when certain Jews arrived, who had knowledge of the condition of things prevailing then at Jerusalem, and he enquired of them as to the state of the remnant that had returned there years before. and as to the conditions prevailing in the city. The answer of these men is given to us in verse Neh 1:3.
Their report was a distressful one. Jerusalem as a city was still in a ruinous state, and the people there in great affliction and reproach. The effect this news had upon Nehemiah is related in the rest of the chapter. We venture to think it should also have a very definite effect upon us.
We have just seen in the book of Ezra how under God-fearing men, Zerubbabel and Jeshua, a remnant had returned and rebuilt the temple, and though defection supervened in the course of years, the coming of Ezra led to a distinct reformation; yet now, thirteen years after, they are marked by affliction and reproach. We might have expected that instead of this God would have rewarded them by visible tokens of His approval and favour.
The next book, that of Esther, relates for us things that happened to the much larger number of Jews, that did not concern themselves with God's interests in His temple, but preferred to remain in the land of their captivity, where in the course of the seventy years many of them had settled down in comparative prosperity. The name of God is not mentioned in Esther, and we might have expected that these easy-going folk would have come under His displeasure. What do we find? Read Est 9:17-19, and see. The people who, in spite of their defects, had cared for God's interests and rebuilt His temple, marked by affliction and reproach; while those who did not concern themselves, remaining in their comforts, have 'feasting', 'gladness', and 'a good day'.
What instruction shall we gather from this extraordinary and, we venture to think, this unexpected contrast? Well, in the first place, worldly prosperity and jollification, even if the fruit of God's care and dealings behind the scenes, is not necessarily an indication of His approval, nor is affliction a sign of His disapproval, as is seen in far more striking degree in the case of Job. Secondly, we may refer to what is stated in Heb 12:6, 'Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth'. If we read Psa 73:1-28, we find the same problem exercising the mind of the writer. He saw those who definitely were wicked prospering, while the godly were chastened. It was when he went into the sanctuary of God that he found the solution.
Nehemiah of course had not the light that the New Testament sheds upon this problem, so the sad tidings concerning, 'the remnant that are left', affected him deeply, for in spirit he was of them, though not actually with them. He was moved to tears, mourning, fasting and prayer. The report he had heard was mainly concerned with the outward circumstances of the remnant, rather than with their inward spiritual state, but it moved him to these four things.
And what about present day conditions among the true saints of God? Many are in outward affliction under the iron hand of Communism or Romanism, while in the English-speaking world the increased inflow of money into our pockets seems to have produced a decreased outflow of love and devotion from our souls. Have these four things ever marked us? Have we ever mourned to tears over the thousands of our fellow-saints persecuted and even martyred in this twentieth century? Have we ever abstained from lawful things and given ourselves to prayer on their behalf? The writer leaves each reader to answer these questions for himself. He knows quite well what he would have to reply.
The prayer of Nehemiah, though shorter than Ezra's, is very similar. He too identified himself with the sin of the people, saying, 'we have sinned'. But in one direction he went further, pleading the word of the Lord, that had been written in Lev 26:1-46. Israel had been warned that disobedience to the law would bring upon themselves a scattering; but that even then if they turned to God in obedience to His word, He would gather them from distant lands and restore them to the place of His name. On this, which had been written, he based his plea. For those in Jerusalem and for himself he made the claim that they were those, 'who desire to fear Thy name'.
While making request in a more general way for the returned remnant in Jerusalem, he had a more definite request to make for himself. He was in a post of special responsibility before the king, and having access to his presence, he intended to make a request of the monarch that he might very naturally entirely refuse. He sought therefore that God would prosper him in that which he had in mind.
Neh 1:1. Nehemiah- It may be well questioned, whether this Nehemiah be the same with him mentioned in Ezr 2:1 and chap. Neh 7:7 of this book, as one who returned from the Babylonish captivity under Zerubbabel; since, from the first year of Cyrus to the twentieth of Artaxerxes Longimanus, there are no less than ninety-two years intervening; so that Nehemiah must at this time have been a very old man; upon the lowest computation above a hundred, and consequently incapable of being the king's cup-bearer, of taking a journey from Shushan to Jerusalem, and of behaving there with all that courage and activity which is recorded of him. Upon this presumption, therefore, we may conclude, that this was a different person, though of the same name. That Tirshatha denotes the title of his office, and, both in the Persian and Chaldean tongues, was the general name given to all the king's deputies and governors, see on Ezr 2:63. The text calls him barely the son of Hachaliah, without informing us of what tribe he was. Some, therefore, from 2Ma 1:18; 2Ma 1:21 where he is said to have offered sacrifices, and from his being reckoned at the head of the priests who signed the new covenant with God (ch. Neh 10:1.), have affirmed him to have been of the family of Aaron; but as there is nothing conclusive in all this, and it seems expressly contradicted by his saying, in another place, that he was not a fit person to shelter himself in the temple, chap. Neh 6:2 the far greater part suppose him to have been of the royal family of Judah. And this is so much the more probable, because we find none but such promoted to those high stations about the king's person; and we never read of a priest that was so till a long time after, and upon a quite different account. The month Chisleu answers to part of our November and December, and the twentieth year is the twentieth of the reign of Artaxerxes. See Le Clerc and Houbigant.
Neh 1:3. The wall-also is broken down, &c.- The commissions which had hitherto been granted to the Jews were supposed to extend no further than to the rebuilding of the temple, and their own private houses; and therefore the walls and gates of the city lay in the same ruinous condition in which the Chaldeans left them after that devastation.
REFLECTIONS.-Nehemiah, though nobly advanced at court, and honoured with a mansion in the palace of Shushan, still bore in his heart the welfare of Zion, and still preferred Jerusalem's prosperity before his chief joy. Note; God has sometimes his friends even in the palace; and, though a court is usually a soil too unfavourable to religious concerns, he had monuments of grace even in Nero's houshold.
1. Nehemiah, on the visit of some of his brethren to Babylon, probably to solicit some favour in behalf of the Jews, earnestly inquires after Jerusalem, and the returned captives who dwelt in it; but receives an afflicting narrative of their wretched situation: the city lying in its desolations, and the people under distress, insulted, oppressed, and reproached by their more powerful neighbours. Note; (1.) We must not, in our advancement, forget ourselves, and grow strange to our brethren because they may be poor or afflicted. (2.) The persecution of God's people, which discourages the unfaithful, awakens the greater zeal and concern of such as are true-hearted.
2. The melancholy account affected the good Nehemiah: the tears ran down his cheeks; and, in affliction, four days he fasted and prayed before the God of heaven, that he would remember their misery, and return to them in mercy. Note; (1.) In seasons of public or private calamities, fasting and weeping should accompany our prayers. (2.) It is a relief to the oppression of our own spirit, when with tears we can pour our complaints into the bosom of a compassionate God. (3.) While we have a God in heaven to go to, our deeper distresses are not desperate.
Neh 1:11. And grant him mercy-For I, &c.- Houbigant supposes, that Nehemiah repeated this prayer (which he had often before repeated) now again in silence, while he administered the cup to the king in his office; and therefore he renders the last clause, but I then administered the cup to the king; and this alone, he thinks, can account for the mode of expression, this man. The office of cup-bearer was a place of great honour and advantage in the Persian court, because of the privilege which it gave him who bare it, of being daily in the king's presence; and the opportunity which he thereby had of gaining his favour for the procuring of any petition that he should make to him. That it was a place of great pecuniary advantage, seems evident by Nehemiah's gaining those immense riches which enabled him for so many years, (ch. Neh 5:14; Neh 5:19.) out of his own privy purse only, to live in his government with great splendour and expence, without burdening the people at all.
REFLECTIONS.-Nehemiah's prayer speaks the gracious temper of his soul.
1. He draws near to God with reverence and godly fear, yet mixed with filial confidence, as to the great God, terrible in judgments, yet faithful to his promises, and never failing those who trust him. Note; (1.) There is a reverential fear of God, which is perfectly consistent with the most enlarged love towards him. (2.) They, who experience the love of God in their souls, may comfortably conclude that he is their faithful friend.
2. He humbly prays that God would graciously hear the prayer which zeal for his glory dictated, and grant the desires of his heart which his grace excited. Note; When God pours out upon us the spirit of grace and supplication, we may assuredly conclude that he will hear and answer us.
3. He penitently confesses their sins, which justly had brought down these afflictions upon them; taking shame to himself, among the rest, for having added to the provocation.
4. He pleads for mercy and pardon; urging, as the ground of his hope, the divine promise that God had given by Moses, that whenever they returned to him, wherever dispersed, or however distressed, he would return to them: and such was now their earnest desire and prayer. Note; (1.) As we see the fulfilment of God's threatenings, we may conclude the fulfilment of his promises. (2.) The most reviving pleas in prayer are drawn from God's faithful word, wherein he has caused us to put our trust. (3.) Though we are not worthy to be called God's people; yet, when we return with penitential prayer, he will not disclaim the relation. (4.) The greater kings are but dying men, and worms of earth; and their hearts are in God's hand, to turn them according to the good pleasure of his own will.
